PRESIDENT CLINTON: Buenos dias, Tlaxcala. (Applause.)
President and Mrs. Zedillo, Governor and Mrs. Alvarez-Lima, to all of
our friends from Mexico and the United States. Mayor Teroba, thank you
for welcoming us to this wonderful city. It is great to be here. I
thank you for coming out to say hello.

President Zedillo and I have been working hard, as he
said, and now we have come just to celebrate Mexico's people and culture
with you. This is an especially important day for my wife and for me
because we were married about 22 years ago, and we came to Mexico on our
honeymoon. And so we always love to come back. And this is a very
romantic setting to be in today, and we thank you for that. (Applause.)

The partnership between Mexico and the United States,
the friendship between Mexico and the United States is important to the
future of the American people and the Mexican people. It must be
pursued in a genuine spirit of respect, equality, and dignity.

We are moving into a world with great changes in the way
we work and live, and the world grows smaller because of technology and
rapid communications. But some things do not change. This beautiful
city, founded nearly 500 years ago, reminds us that even in times of
great change some things are meant to last -- our heritage, our love of
family, community, our devotion to work, our respect for the land we are
blessed to inhabit.

It is my purpose to work with you to preserve the things
that we want to preserve, to change as we must so that the people of
Mexico and the people of the United States will have more and better
jobs, good health care, all our children, boys and girls alike, will
have good education, and we will be able together to beat back our
common enemies of drugs and crime, so that as we move into the new
century we will know we have preserved our community, our values, our
integrity, and we have prepared the way for our children's future.

In closing, I would like to say a special thank you to the
Mexican people for the many contributions that Mexican Americans have
made to our life in the United States. (Applause.) Two members of my
presidential Cabinet, many people in my administration, many members of
our Congress, people successful in all walks of life have their roots
here in Mexico. They are proud of it, and so am I. And we are going to
work hard to make sure that in the years ahead, we draw closer together,
we work together, we maintain a spirit of pride in our own heritage, but
a genuine partnership for a better future.